Judge's Ruling Deems MD Child Victims Act Unconstitutional: Reports

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — A Montgomery County judge this week deemed Maryland’s Child Victims Act unconstitutional when she dismissed a sex abuse lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Washington in which a man claimed he was repeatedly sexually abused when he was a boy by diocese priests, according to multiple reports.

The Maryland Child Victims Act, which went into effect Oct. 1, lifted the statute of limitations that prohibited victims from suing their abusers or the institutions that employed them after a specific amount of time had passed.

The ruling by Circuit Judge Jeannie E. Cho strayed from earlier decisions by judges in Harford and Prince George's counties, who found the 2023 state law constitutional, the Maryland Daily Record reported.

Cho's ruling found the law “retroactively abrogated the substantive and vested rights" of the defendants, including the Archdiocese of Washington and St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, among others, according to the Daily Record.

“Maryland courts have consistently found that a statute of repose bars all liability after a certain point in time,” Cho wrote.

Robert K. Jenner, an attorney for the man, told the Baltimore Sun the legal team was “disappointed with the trial court’s decision" and plans to appeal the decision to the Maryland Supreme Court.

"... We are confident that a thorough review will lead to a favorable outcome for childhood survivors of sexual assault," Jenner wrote in an email to the Sun. "We remain committed to pursuing justice on behalf of our clients and ensuring our arguments are fully heard and considered at the highest level."

The class-action lawsuit filed in Prince George's County against the Archdiocese of Washington claimed three men were abused as children by priests, deacons or other diocese employees while they attended churches or schools in Prince George's or Montgomery counties, according to an earlier report by the Sun.

In November, the Archdiocese of Washington — which includes Montgomery, Prince George's, Charles, Calvert and St. Mary's counties in Maryland, along with the District of Columbia —became the first entity to legally challenge the Maryland Child Victims Act. The motion to dismiss the cases claimed the law violates the state constitution by allowing previously barred claims to be revived.

In a statement provided to Patch in November, the Archdiocese of Washington denied the allegations and said that despite taking legal action, it remains "committed... to our longstanding efforts to bring healing to survivors through pastoral care and other forms of assistance that are available apart from the legal process."

"We are also committed to maintaining our robust safe environment policies that have been in place for decades to ensure the protection of all those who are entrusted to our care," the statement continued.

According to the Sun, the Archdiocese of Washington is appealing a Prince George's County judge's ruling that deemed the law constitutional. Recently, a Harford County judge also ruled the law constitutional in a child sex abuse lawsuit against the county’s Board of Education, reports said.